children. >> there you go. birthday girl. >> happy birthday, miss kay. >> thank you. >> bruce willis is a republican. >> lincoln. link lincoln. >> got to go back 100 years. >> i'm too hurt to talk about what i learned today. nicolle. >> i learned rnc chairman makes a good point about the hillary program. >> i got really shot down there. >> if it's way too early what time is it? >> it is kate's birthday. happy birthday, i love you. >> i love you too. >> can you wave to the camera? wave. >> wave to chuck. >> i need some kids also. >> if it's way too early, it's "morning joe." now, stick around for chuck todd and "the daily rundown." happy birthday. >> summer snub. president obama axing his

meeting with president putin. we'll talk to someone who has dealt with the russians for a long time and went to russia with then senator obama, former republican senator dick lugar. also this morning, a deep dive into the legacy of the kennedy clan's matriarch. the long life of rose kennedy which helped shape washington for a generation and beyond. and we got a look at the senate shake-up of 2014. what's going to be out there. arkansas congressman sets his sites on mark pryor's senate seat. not the only red state facing tough fights in 2014. we're going to break down all the latest moves. >> good morning from memphis, tennessee. it is thursday, august 8th, 2013. it is "the daily rundown." now, here's chuck todd. >> katie in memphis. remember, go to rundown.msnbc.com to send in your good morning greeting. both sides insist the cold war isn't back but it's clear the relationship between the

u.s. and russia is getting a bit frosty. the news that president obama will not meet vladimir putin in moscow next month represent ace new low in this combative back and forth over issues from trade to adoption to syria and iran, missile defense, and it's been building pretty much ever since putin got back into the presidential seat. it was russia's refusal to extradite nsa leaker snowden even after persistent appeals, including personal phone calls from obama to putin, that was the last straw. the president showed his press traction on "the tonight show" earlier this week. >> there are times when they slip back into cold war thinking and a cold war mentality. what i consistently say to them and what i say to president putin is, that's the past. >> russian officials say they are disappointed by the decision to cancel the meeting. a top foreign policy adviser to putin blamed obama. saying, quote, this very problem

underlines the fact the united states is still not ready to build relations on an equal basis. the president will still go to russia to attend the g-20 economic summit taking place in st. petersburg. what he's doing is snubbing putin in moscow. the decision to scrap the meeting puts the already cold u.s./russia relationship in a deep freeze. and represents the failure of the so-called reset with russia the administration laid out a few years ago. >> the last few years have seen a dangerous rift in the relations between russia and the members of our alliance. it's time, to paraphrase president obama, it's time to press the reset button. >> the pursuit of power is no longer a zero sum game. progress must be shared. that's why i have called for a reset in relations between the united states and russia. >> now, the president in moscow

in 2009, he did take time to cultivate a good relationship with putin's predecessor dimitri medeyec. the u.s. helped russia finally join the world trade organization. russia agreed to tough sanctions against iran and north korea during those years. but now a thumb in the eye at every opportunity. to say the two leaders have no chemistry is an understatement. to their last meeting just a few months ago in northern ireland when putin awkwardly rebuffed the president's attempt to lighten the mood. the two leaders couldn't be more different. putin is famously flamboyant. in his many orchestrated photo ops. the president not so much. >> put be seems like one of

those old school kgb guys. >> well, he headed up the kgb. >> well, of course putin served in the kgb as a colonel. white house said yesterday the president is aware that putin never led the organization. still, russia's decision to grant snowden asylum was the last straw for a tense relationship. u.s. tension has been building over russian support and armed shipments to assad. and russia halted hundreds of adoptions already under way. russia has thrown out american aid and democracy organizations. they being contract cracked dow ahead of next year's olympics in sochi. another white house announcement was greeted with bipartisan approval. some republicans in congress couldn't resist pointing out the new low in the u.s./russia relationship. mccain tweeted this, remember, tell vladimir, after my election, i have more

flexibility. grassley chimed in, it is presidential amateur hour because obama doesn't counter putin granting asylum to snowden. and another senator saying, the signature foreign policy accomplishment has just collapsed. joining me now, former indiana republican senator richard lugar. he worked for years to dismantle the former soviet union's vast arsenal of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. he traveled to russia with then senator obama to inspect facilities there. can't think of anybody better to explain what's going on here. you have deepeni eninknowledge relationship. is this a putin issue or much deeper? >> primarily a putin issue. you've described the switchover from president medvedev to putin

in 2012 and that's made a very large difference. i would just say from personal experience i went to russia a year ago in august of 2012 to try to keep going the nuclear reduction program, going on for 20 years. made a proposal that the united states and russia might -- if an emergency came work together to mop up the syrian chemical weapons. because we'd had very great experience out in sucha and russia and here. i would just say simply that i met resistance and the war department immediately said we don't want any more americans around in esansence and it was change -- >> there's always this assumption when medvedev was president and putin was prime minister that he wasn't really in charge, putin was in charge. but clearly he did have more influence because medvedev

really wanted u.s. cooperation. >> he did. in fact, he came out to silicon valley, as you may remember. he wanted very much investment in russia. a change from a fuel base that is natural gas and oil economy to something much more. he came to washington, met with a few senators. we had a very good-humored meeting with him. i would just say simply this was medvedev's time. but things changed. i think at this particular point, i wouldn't overstate this. for example, although i was not successful in gaining a continuation of a so-called umbrella agreement, a treaty was signed by ambassador sesliak here. but it was signed more or less in secret. >> because the russians didn't want it publicized. >> no, so it went back ton president putin and president

obama who silently okayed the whole business. but it did keep things open. not on armed control. but at least some department of energy affairs. i stress this because some russians made those suggestions. so there is something going on there yet. >> you see that yesterday in what they announced. president's not going to meet with putin. basically the white house is saying it's a waste of time. the two of them. however, chuck hagel -- and meet with their counterpart. is this what the next three years is going to be? putin and obama, they're just not going to have much of a relationship. but on a lower level, they might get things done. >> well, for the time being, apparently putin feels challenged by the young people who are still coming out in the streets. very difficult election going on in moscow. which indicates that things are changing in russia. people are listening to their cell phones and to tv and so forth. and putin is threatened by this.

he sympathized with assad, i believe, in syria, because he realizes assad is an authoritarian leader and he's not about to see authoritarian leaders brushed aside, including himself. >> you call putin an authoritarian, not really a democratic leader, more an authoritarian leader? >> very much so. >> he seems to be obsessed with nationalism. in a way that that's what drives some of these decisions. like the adoption decision in particular. to ban u.s. adoption which had been a very, very successful exchange, you know, for years. seemed to be all rooted in nationalism. >> clearly a retational. the situation in which we deny visas doing human rights violationings in russia. it came after putin literally kicked out all the democracy organizations. in other words, he's tired of having americans around who are talking about democracy and human rights and so forth.

>> but putin does strike me as a transactional guy. is it possible this snub actually sort of makes him reassess things? when you combine this snub on the snarl stainternational conc the rising concern of olympians having to do with sochi and the anti-gay aspect of russia, that he's going to be put into a very negative light on the world stage is he likely to respond? >> conceivably sochi may be another breakthrough in terms of good relations. simply because it's in a very vulnerable geographical position. putin is well aware of the problems in the caucusas with the jihadists. >> are you concerned about the olympics? >> of course. if you look at the geography where that's located, these are difficult times.

i think in fairness to putin, he had a bad break with the snowden situation. i think the chinese literally palmed off snowden. >> yes, they punted snowden. >> put him into russia. there's just one more headache than putin needed. >> let me ask you a larger philosophical question. it feels like it's maybe a trend over the last decade or so. u.s. influence. the ability to influence around the world. it feels as if it's harder and harder every day. you look at the issue in egypt. you look at the issue with snowden, with china and russia, syria. you go around and it's been -- it looks like it's been harder and harder for the u.s. to exert its influence. fair? >> i don't think that's fair. i think we're faced in the united states with the jihadists. with the movements of muslim and extreme. this isn't going to go on quite -- if they're not interested whether we have influence or not. as a matter of fact, they simply don't like this or anything about us. at least the terrorist varieties. we just have to face that fact.

this is a very difficult period. now to the extent governments are overthrown routinely, whether they're author tarn or not across the arab spring, all sorts of people are going to rise up. it's undoubtedly true they don't pay much attention to the united states. but at the same time, i don't think we need to worry about that obsessively. the united states is the only country that can take people all around the world, literally, even our nato friends out to afghanistan. so only fleet that keeps the seas open. everybody understands that basically. this is a huge influence. >> senator lugar, thank you, appreciate your wisdom. good to have you here. >> thank you, sir. coming up, yemen says it's thwarted an al qaeda planned terror plot. so what's the president to do? keep the heightened alert? dial it back down? need to present a win-win in these highly polarized times. later, fight for the senate in 2014. searching for the right recipe

to flip control. first, a look at today's politics planner. the president has a bilateral today with the prime minister of greece. what do we have today? another new jersey senate debate, that will be interesting. and we're doing "grease" and i'm not sure why. we'll be right back. ♪ we got to be what we feel ♪ grease is the word a-a-a.

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the white house announced that president obama will march the 50th anniversary on the march of washington by speaking from the steps of the lincoln memorial. the same place martin luther king jr. stood when he delivered his i have a dream speech. the march was one of the largest

human rights rallies in american history. it's interesting. the only person alive who delivered a speech that day was john lewis, the georgia congressman. turning to 2016 politics, new hampshire won't hold its first in the nation primary for another 2 1/2 years but, hey, why not poll it? there's a new poll in the granite state that gives us the early look of the possible field. we know this meaningless poll is kind of fun to chew on. the democratic side, no contest. early week college football score. hillary clinton out front with 62%. biden with 8%. you have deval patrick, corey booker, andrew cuomo. on the republican side, it's chris christie on top. marco rubio at 6. governor christie leads his democratic challenger 58-30. buono has gained just 8 points

since january. coming up on "the daily rundown," a deep dive into the life of rose kennedy. the single most important figure when it came to creating the ken did kennedy image. the author of a fabulous new biographer on her. first, today's daily trivia. the answer and more coming up. you about. the new samsung galaxy s 4. it's got a front and back camera so you can take pictures at the same time. seriously! yeah - and it's on verizon's network. sweet! we can stay in touch when we go to school next year. that's so great! get the samsung galaxy s 4 for only $148 on verizon - america's largest 4g lte network. walmart.

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with the initial terror threat warnings now almost a week old, it's hardly a surprise that now the conversation has turned a bit to politics. the white house having to defend itself from criticism the abrupt evacuation of personnel from embassies around the world. playing into the hands of the

jihadists intent on spreading terror. so says some. "the new york times" catching that gloating in online chat rooms from some operatives. say, quote, god is great, america is in a condition of fear and terror from al qaeda. costing them billions of dollars. we hope to hear more of such psychological warfare even if there are no actual jihadi operations on the ground. "the wall street journal" op-ed, nbc special correspondent ted koppel argues the aggressive u.s. reaction sows a culture of fear. saying terrorism is the means by which the weak induce the powerful to inflict damage upon themselves. al qaeda and groups like it are surely counting on that as the centerpiece of their strategy. white house of course found itself in a classic damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. the obama administration felt they were hamstrung and almost had to respond to these threats. denying they're acting from a

defensive crouch. >> what do you say to those cynics who say this is an overreaction to benghazi? how do you respond? >> one thing i've tried to do as president is not overreact. you know, but make sure that as much as possible the american people understand that there are genuine risks out there. >> another issue for the president, explaining the diplomatic shutdown to the public told repeatedly that al qaeda is losing strength. at camp pendleton, he tried to draw distinction between core al qaeda and its affiliates. >> because of you, obama is no more. because of you, al qaeda's top ranks have been hammered. even as we decimated the al qaeda leadership that attacked us on 9/11, al qaeda affiliates and like-minded extremists still threaten our homeland. still threaten our diplomatic

facilities. here's what those who would cowardly attack our civilians don't get. the united states is never going to retreat from the world. we don't get terrorized. >> let's bring in the gaggle. former democratic senator from north dakota byron dorgan. former white house political director sarah fagan. and contributing writer, nathan gonzalez. welcome. senator, let me start with you. this is frankly, i'm sure sarah remembers this during the bush years. always comes up when the country is put on a terror footing and nothing happens. then we have this debate. is it a relevant debate? are we now overdebating? >> i think it's pretty much a thoughtless debate. in the sense -- put yourself in the oval office and have intelligence officials come to you with threats you think and they think are credible threats. my hope is president will always

exercise caution on behalf of this country in the face of those so-called credible threats. it doesn't matter what action a president will take. the president these days, and this political system is always going to be criticized, i think the president's willing to take some criticism for his action here based on what he thought was the right thing for the country. based on the threat. >> you guys dealt with this criticism as well when the -- back during the color alert levels. there would be a big pronouncement. >> i think you're right. you are sort of damned if you do, damned if you don't. i think the challenge for the president though is he's been pretty inconsistent as it relates to his foreign policy. didn't react to intelligence in benghazi. now perhaps overreacts to the intelligence that came out about a week ago. gets involved in egypt and helps get rid of mubarak. does nothing now. gets involved, you know, in -- with russia and moves czech

republic and the polish missile defense system out. you know, our friends in the world look at us and say we're not standing with them. our enemies don't sufficiently fear us. >> i want to tackle that subject in a second. nathan, go to the criticism. >> when you focus this through the lens of domestic politics. that because the threat level increase happened overseas. we're talking about embassies. >> it wasn't here in the united states. >> right there are people who will criticize the president no matter what he does. but because there was a level of distance and it wasn't -- people standing in line at airports for four hours or something. i think -- there is little downside to the domestic policy or political front for the president. >> senator, i'm curious if you want to respond to sara's criticism there a little bit of the president. it's been a rough period for the

president on foreign policy. i would say this issue, particularly of egypt, and you look at the snowden thing, you know, it's been a rough six months for the president on foreign policy. >> it's been a rough six months for the country in many ways. the president didn't bring on the snowden issue. i mean, you know, look when you take a look at the arab spring, take a look at what's going on in egypt, it's very easy to be critical of this administration. but in my judgment, that criticism is often unwarranted. you try to work through these things as best you can. you know, the egyptian situation is really very interesting and very complicated in my judgment. and my own view of the president, he's taken on some pretty tough situation. i think he's done a pretty solid job. >> he misplayed russia. >> what is the alternative? not stand up for democratic values? >> the challenge you have, you

know, the president, you go in and remove mubarak and now you tie aid to a democratic process. the egyptians remove morsi. and the united states -- >> you think we should pull aid? there was some talk of that. even mccain and graham are saying don't do that. >> the challenge is he misplays his hand. he goes out and says these statements, you know. take syria for example. we're going to draw a red line on chemical weapons. yet they use chemical weapons. and i agree. this is complicated. what are you going to do? the problem is the way he handles it on the front end, not on the back end. >> let's look at syria. what would one have the president do in syria? send american troops to syria? i listen to all this criticism and try to think through. what would the critics do, were they in the president's chair, trying to represent the best interest of this country? >> what he would have done is be stronger with the russians earlier. and stronger with the chinese earlier. and use diplomatic relations to

have russia play a more appropriate role as opposed to sending warships to defend them. >> what i find fascinating about this, i say this not left/right, is we wonder why there's an isolationist streak running right now in both parties. where suddenly you have this sense of you know what, this stuff is very hard and no matter what, they're going to hate us. >> i think because of the past wars and the past deployments there's a reluctance on both sides to get involved. i think that's a new part of our politics that's changed since ten years ago. >> but we are involved very aggressively diplomatically. the diplomacy piece is important. you don't always see it. i'm telling you, it goes on. this administration's done quite well with it. >> we'll talk more raw politics later in the show. coming up, a look at who the democrats need to win over to keep control in the senate and who's really at risk of losing their senate seat. turning into a small battlefield but a fascinating one. first, the power behind the throne. a new look at the matriarch of

the kennedy family and the roles she played for generations in her family. perhaps their best-known media consultant. [announcer] there's no hiding the goodness of the latest from beneful baked delights. new heartfuls are made with real bacon... ...and oven-baked to crisp perfection. new heartfuls from beneful baked delights. [ sneezing ] she may be muddling through allergies. try zyrtec®. powerful allergy relief for adults and kids six years and older. zyrtec®. love the air.

in today's deep dive, a look at the matriarch of the kennedy clan. the daughter of a congressman turned boston mayor. the oldest of six children. rose kennedy grew up in the political spotlight. often appearing on the campaign trail with her father. becoming a popular political figure in her own right. she defied her father and married an ambitious businessman by the name of joseph kennedy. they had nine children. as her husband got politically involved, she could be rightfully described as the senior political strategist of the family. eventually taking a very active and public role in her son john's first congressional campaign. organizing grassroots events under the banner of her father's

famous fitzgerald name. she hosted tea parties to introduce them to the social circles of boston. came at a time when her husband was politically toxic after controversial remarks he made in the lead-up to world war ii. the start of a political dynasty that sent three sons to the u.s. senate. one of them to the white house. and would extend to a third and now fourth generation of kennedys serbing in washington. she notably helped steer her son teddy's career after the car crash. appearing on the campaign trail for his re-election bid. she mastered the media. she went on to perfect the newsreel and later television. tacking between the trivial and serious. at a time when moth didn't know how to do that. living to the age of 104, she could be called a woman ahead of her time. joining me now is barbara perry, author of "rose kennedy, the life and times of a political matriarch." she's also with the miller

center, university of virginia. welcome. thank you. >> of all the kennedys, she is written about the least, which i imagine is what made her such a fascinating figure to write about. >> absolutely. the fact in 2006 the kennedy library released 250 boxes of her papers, her letters, her journals. so i thought it was time a book make full use of that. >> what i thought was interesting is you essentially paint a pit under of her as she was the media consultant for the kennedy family. >> i think she was or at leefas as you say she mastered all the medias. whether it was newspapers in the early 20th century or newsreels or radio and certainly television. i don't mean to indicate that old joe behind the scenes wasn't often pulling the strings and using his hollywood producer era to give that experience. she was the one making use of the techniques. >> we know joe being the guy who would buy primaries if need be.

was she the better strategist? is that the picture? >> no, what i would say is he was the strategist, she was the tactician. she could get out on the battlefield and go to the end to do what was needed. as you pointed out in the lead-in, joe was toxic by the time the war came along because of his perceived appeasement and anti-semitism, et cetera. it was rose who could represent that generation and she had the fitzgerald name from the boston area. >> she figured out a way to distance her son from her husband. >> absolutely. again, by presenting the fitzgerald side of the clan. which was of course the part of the clan which had already been out into politics because of honey fitz, her own dad, mayor of boston. >> couple of nuggets you came up. she was a big auto graph

collector. during the presidency, she's writing rivals of the united states for autographs. you have an incident about khrushchev. >> she had gone with jackie and jack to the famous trip to paris in 1961 and at the dinner at the palace with khrushchev, she was having pictures taken and making sure she got khrushchev's autograph. writing to him, saying, can you sign these? jack writes to her from the white house and says, dear mother, please stop writing to khrushchev. and typical of rose, she's a good catholic, so she's contrite, she promises to send no more. she says, good thing you told me, i was just getting ready to write to castro. >> and that wasn't a joke. >> she probably was. she knew and she had that irish wit she passed on to her kids. >> the relationship with her husband, like many of the kennedy men have been painted, serial philanderer in many respects. how did she handle that? >> right. well, she handled it the way she

handled all problems that could be inconvenient for the family and the image. that is in public she never talked about it. she was very much the forerunner of jacqueline kennedy. so she would never talk about these things in public. she did not talk about them in her memoir except to say, i told my daughters in law, if you're in politics, you will hear gossip. in private letters, some of which i was able to acquire, she would write about it as if it was something legitimate. she would say, my husband was in hollywood and we went out with stars including gloria swanson. she would make that into a legitimate friendship. >> even though it was -- >> even though her husband was having a well-known affair. >> of all the daughters, daughters in law that she had, she became closest to? >> i think in some ways it was hard for her to become close to any of them but i think in the end it was probably jackie. though she and ethel had a wonderful relationship because ethel was most like her own daughters. >> we're out of time here but

there was also the fact that, you know, she was a forerunner in getting, bringing attention to those parents with disabled children and not treating it as something to be ashamed of but something to work through. that's another part of her legacy. the book is wonderful. a very -- of all the kennedy books, there's plenty of kennedy books, not enough of rose kennedy. more from the gaggle in a few. first, a look at whether the democrats are weakest in their fight to keep control of the u.s. senate. plus, what to look out for in the fight for virginia governor. first, the white house soup of the day. chipotle beef. go ahead and criticize the pronunciation. we'll be right back. let's play: [ all ] who's new in the fridge! i help support bones... [ ding! ] ...the immune system... [ ding! ] ...heart health... [ ding! ] ...and muscles. [ ding! ] that can only be ensure complete! [ female announcer ] the four-in-one nutrition of ensure complete. a simple choice to help you eat right. [ major nutrition ] nutrition in charge.

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in the u.s. senate now. the race may already be tilting cotton's way. both conservatives in the establishment are behind him in a way we haven't seen in other states. the state itself has been shifting decidedly to the red column. pryor is under pressure from his own side. new york citier mayor bloomberg is bankrolling ads against pryor as punishment for his vote against tougher gun control. they'd need just five more seats to regain control. we're already counting the corey booker in the win there. and there is a clear path to get there. but it won't be easy. reed wilson is the new senior political blogger for "the washington post." and jessica taylor, the daily rundown's political reporter. reed, let me start with you. there is a red only path to the united states senate and that's why republicans feel better today. they don't have to put blue states in play. >> seven states at the moment that mitt romney won that have either democrat incumbents --

>> the four incumbents. >> and the three open sts in south dakota, west virginia and montana, all of which look like they're certainly in the republican column. not guaranteed yet in montana. democrats might pull a good candidate out of the hat. all three seats look like they're trending. that means the path to six seats that the republicans need to pick up is viable. >> there it is. there's seven red state democrats held states pure and simple. and republicans have to win six and hold everything else. what's interesting to me, jessica, is if the democrats hold the senate, they're going to do it because of women candidates. i look at michelle nunn in georgia, a target that democrats feel better about every day. and of course what we have in kentucky. >> democrats not only just their female incumbents that were swept in in 2000, kay hagan and mary landrieu won re-election, but they've gone after female recruits. they want to put kentucky in play, georgia in play.

>> both of them. >> right, from the beginning they saw these as opportunities with a weak incumbent, mitch mcconnell. his approval ratings are down. now he does have this primary fight which is turning into a real fight which he'll have to manage. and in georgia, really i think the question there is how bad does this primary turn out? if one of the tea party candidates end up winning, they hope this turns into another missouri or indiana. >> on the republican side, they've got mcconnell being squeezed on both sides. lindsey graham has three. that's a runoff state, you know, you would normally say, great, more primary challengers, the better. however, if he's held up 50, problem. they'll have this problem perhaps in alaska. democrats can't get 50% in that state. very hard. >> there will be a competitive primary in alaska. >> republicans could once again watch primaries defeat their chances. >> over the last several cycles, the republicans have lost out on five senate seats because of

really weak challengers. >> what will that make it today, 50/50? >> actually, 51/49 for republicans. >> now going back and forth. >> look, this is -- you can't help but think, with seven opportunities, they've got to pick up six. by the way, the two republican seats that could be competitive for democrats, you know, this snake bit party, you can't just help but wonder whether or not the bad luck -- >> one of the tea party guys. it's interesting to me. we talk about the republicans on offense here. colorado should be a state they should try to put in play. if ken buck's the best they can do, we already know what they can do. >> it's a tossup in a presidential year. it should be -- bennett narrowly won last time. this should be another state they're looking to put in play. i think it looks -- they have much deeper worries. >> they're struggling in iowa. they're struggling in new hampshire. places that, you know, they may pull this off but the fact that

they're not doing it in swing states is still a problem. >> republicans have a very narrow pass-through. they've got to run the table. if they had strong candidates in iowa, in michigan, think we'd talk about a much wider scenario. >> this goes as inability -- >> look, check out the -- contemplate some of the races that were cop pettive a year ago. oregon, colorado. new mexico, not really. but, hey, republicans used to competitive in new mexico senate races. >> virginia -- >> they may pull this off, but then you look at this field, could they actually sustain a majority more than two years? >> this is mcconnell's last chance to be senate majority leader if he can hold on. >> the irony would be they'll win six seats, lose kentucky and he doesn't get there. what kind of election night would that be? >> he would not be happy. >> for more on jessica's reporting that she does for us

here including her latest profile of congressman in the new jersey senate race, log on to our website. trivia time, we asked, who was the only sitting member of the senate, current member, who served one term in the house before being elected to the senate? the answer, reed wilson? >> i don't know, i was trying to think of this. >> wow. mr. washington native didn't know. maria cantwell. congratulations to today's winner, oliver character. send your suggestions to dailyrundown@msnbc.com. we'll be right back. this day calls you. to fight chronic osteoarthritis pain. to fight chronic low back pain. to take action. to take the next step. today, you will know you did something for your pain.

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well, the two virginia governor candidates have been swapping weeks of bad stories

and now as democrats show frustration jeff shap row writes the following. like junk food terry is a lot of oh flash and sizzle, a shock to the palate. too much is bad for you. the republicans own deeply flawed no, ma'am knee for governor are aligning to give him a clear shot at victory but he keeps stumbling over the same obstacle, himself. nathan, this is the premier race, a swing state, virginia. a race to the bottom. this is an uninspiring race. everybody is going after the other guy. this s.e.c. investigation, is it a tipping point? >> depends on what voter wills focus on before election day. if the election were today it would be a closer race. the focus is on green tech and the investigation. when you drill into the race you have republicans saying even though you may not agree with ken kuccinelli at least you know where he stands. republicans are trying to paint

mcauliffe as untrustworthy. >> which is the message on oh terry saying he has a hidden agenda. you can't trust him. so which one of them will successfully define -- >> the question is will it stick to ken? she he's running a decent campaign. >> other than raising money. >> well, fair point. >> bad money issue. >> he's had a financial challenge. having said that, uh think many pundits expected him to lurch into issues he shouldn't. he's been clean on oh that. >> disciplined. >> focused on jobs and the economy. even him taking the governor to task for gift gate -- >> he made a mistake not returning what he could have returned. that was an opportunity. >> senator, i want to lift up here. she said -- i don't know what either one is running on.

i'm a virginia voter and i don't know what they want to do as governor. i only know they are scaring me about the other guy. >> you know where he stands wpt to cuccinelli. he's so far off to the right. you talk about the republicans lost five senate seats because they chose people to the extreme right. went through primaries. that's a problem in virginia. i think in the end this won't be a close race largely because the republican candidate is so far off the political center. >> if cuccine lli loses, this is going to be what the focus point is on the republican party. the nominees are too conservative. >> i don't know. it depends how this race shapes up over the next couple of months. if he's not talking about social issues the way some of our previous senate candidates who have and failed, i don't think you can make the comparison. >> if terry loses democrats will say it was his fault.

if cuccinelli loses there is the party -- >> the temptation is no matter who wins or loses to draw too many conclusions on 2016. it's its own race. >> it is. shameless plug, nathan. >> tomorrow, a senate overview. almost like we planned it. >> like we did today. >> 6 million cats and dogs in shelter. august is a great time to adopt a pet. >> very nice. >> i want to put my new book gridlock, a cyber terrorist thriller. >> a fictional book. >> it is. >> gridlock, uh-oh, a former senator talks about the horribleness. >> it's about cyber terror, bad guys and good guys. people will love it. >> cool. coming up, chris jansing. bye-bye.

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good morning. i'm chris jansing. new deadly u.s. drone strikes today are taking out al qaeda targets in yemen. on the heels